Zelus armillatus, (Lepeletier & Serville, 1825)

Heyden, Torsten van der, Hidalgo, Ignacio Gamboa & Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., 2014, First record of Zelus armillatus (Lepeletier & Serville, 1825) in Costa Rica, with notes on taxonomic problems regarding the genus Zelus Fabricius, 1803 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Harpactorinae: Harpactorini)., Arquivos Entomolóxicos 12, pp. 85-90 : 86-87

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.12714077

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:66B363CA-F03F-4F7A-BBDD-90A8CBBAE4E0

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12714799

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8345878A-FE6C-FFD3-FF7D-AB09FEA61D01

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Zelus armillatus
status

 

Z. armillatus (Lepeletier & Serville, 1825) View in CoL in Costa Rica

Recently, the second author was able to find and photograph adults of Z. armillatus with different colouration in Costa Rica. The site of the findings is located in Vuelta de Jorco, county of Aserrí in the province of San José, about 1100 m above sea level. The specimens were found at a plantation of Zea mays ( Poaceae ), which was mixed with other cultivated plants as Cucurbita argyrosperma ( Cucurbitaceae ) and Coriandrum sativum ( Apiaceae ).

Just a few days before finding specimens of Z. armillatus , the second author had found eggs, immature instars and adults of Leptoglossus gonagra (Fabricius, 1775) ( Coreidae : Coreinae : Anisoscelini ) at the same site, the first record of this species in Costa Rica ( van der Heyden & Gamboa Hidalgo, 2014).

On 29.7.2014, a specimen of Z. armillatus was found near to the base of a leaf of Z. mays , feeding on a spider ( Fig. 1 View Figs ). A dead bee was observed nearby (to be seen in fig. 1, too), which might imply that the reduviid bug was hiding among the leaves, waiting for prey. Large parts of the body of this specimen (pronotum, wings) were black, its legs were completely black, too.

On the same day, another specimen of Z. armillatus ( Fig. 2 View Figs ) was found near to the base of a leaf of Z. mays , too. The body of this specimen had a yellowish colouration, parts of the -mostly black- legs were yellow, too. When the second author got closer, moving the leaves of the plant, the bug let itself fall down, probably a kind of defence, and secreted a scentless liquid, which was milky-yellowish.

One week later, on 5.8.2014, the second author found three more specimens of Z. armillatus at the same site. One specimen ( Fig. 3 View Figs ) was yellowish, two specimens were partly black ( Figs. 4 and 5 View Figs ).

The yellowish specimens of Z. armillatus were larger (about 20 mm) than the darker ones (about 15

mm), a sexual dimorphism, with females being larger than males.

As Z. armillatus has not been reported from Costa

Rica yet, these records are the first ones of this species in this country.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hemiptera

Family

Reduviidae

SubFamily

Harpactorinae

Tribe

Harpactorini

Genus

Zelus

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